The Parable of the Tiger Hunter

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, Shell was the only company able to drill offshore in the Arctic, and now they have withdrawn from drilling offshore in the Arctic, so how can we get all that oil out from offshore in the Arctic?”

Josh spoke thus:

A big game hunter wanted to hunt the rarest tiger.  The rarest tiger was in the deepest jungle.  The deepest jungle, it was said, was impassable.  No one had seen the rarest tiger in twenty years.

“I will get you in,” a guide told the hunter.

“If you get me in, I will make you rich,” the hunter told the guide.

“Then I will be rich,” the guide said, “Follow me.”

“Don’t we need equipment?” the hunter asked the guide.

“Bring what equipment you think you need,” the guide said, “The equipment you bring will not help you.”

“I can’t go without equipment,” the hunter insisted.

“Then bring your equipment,” the guide said.

The hunter gathered the hunter’s equipment.  The hunter had a lot of equipment.

“You have a lot of equipment,” the guide told the hunter.

The hunter gathered the hunter’s crew to carry the equipment.

“You have a large crew,” the guide told the hunter.

“I need a large crew to carry my equipment,” the hunter said.

“You have a lot of equipment,” the guide told the hunter.

“I can’t go without equipment,” the hunter insisted.

“The equipment you bring will not help you,” the guide said.

Guide, hunter and crew walked into the jungle with the equipment.  The jungle was impassable.  The hunter called up a member of the hunter’s crew with a machete.

“Make this passable,” the hunter told the member of the hunter’s crew.

“Leave the machete, leave the member of your crew, leave your crew, leave your equipment,” the guide told the hunter, “And the jungle will be passable.”

The hunter left the machete, the member of the hunter’s crew, the hunter’s crew, and the hunter’s equipment.  The hunter and the guide passed easily through the jungle.

The hunter and the guide passed through valleys.  They passed over mountains.  They passed over rivers.  They passed through natural limestone tunnels, they passed along logs, they passed down vast corridors of elephant grass.

The hunter and the guide passed into the deepest part of the jungle, where the rarest tiger lived.

In a clearing, the hunter stood looking at the rarest tiger.  The rarest tiger looked at the hunter.

“Hand me my gun,” the hunter said to the member of the hunter’s crew who carried the hunter’s gun.  The member of the hunter’s crew who carried the hunter’s gun was not there.  The hunter’s gun was not there.  The hunter had left the member of the hunter’s crew who carried the hunter’s gun and the hunter’s gun behind, as the guide had instructed the hunter to do.

The clearing, the hunter noted, was strewn with bones.  Amid the bones were scraps of hunters’ clothing.  The hunter now knew that many hunters had seen the rarest tiger over the last twenty years.

“Let’s get out of here,” the hunter said to the guide.

The guide replied, “I said I would get you in.  I did not say I would get you out.”